p. 1 | Satan's Last Charge by Benjamin G. Wilkinson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 31, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, October 31, 1916

Satan's Last Charge

By Benjamin G. Wilkinson

JEHOVAH said, "From one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me." Isa. 66: 23.

The devil said, "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me."

God longs for the worship of man; and man needs to worship God, just as truly as God longs for his worship. The devil, however, tried to usurp God's place, and divert that worship to himself. Yet he knows, as some day all the human race will know, that worship of God is the highest joy that can fill the human breast. Any man who would sell for a sensual pleasure or a gratification of the flesh, the joy of worshiping God, is like a man playing with toys when God wants him to play with worlds. He is insane. He is blinded. He does not know that which is for his best good.

From stuff invisible the strongest men cut out their strength. "The things which are seen," says the apostle Paul, "are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." There are invisible realities that are yet to become visible. An absent Redeemer has a definite appointment to return. A new earth has been promised, as also has been the descent of the holy city, the New Jerusalem. When the thousand years in which the righteous live and reign with Christ are over, then will occur their return to this earth.

The wicked dead will be visited again. As Isaiah declares concerning the wicked, "They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." Isa. 24: 22. And concerning the descent of Christ with the redeemed band as He returns to this earth, we read as follows: "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee." "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, . . . and there shall be a very great valley. . . . And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." Zech. 14: 5, 4, 9.

Then will be fulfilled the statement of the Saviour that the wicked shall be raised to "the resurrection of damnation." John 5: 29. How different is their resurrection from that of the just, which takes place a thousand years previous! These come up with the bloom of immortality on their cheek, with clear eyes and a perfect conscience.

But the wicked come up as they fell. The same spirit of rebellion will be in their heart. They will be like weeds that have gone to seed, without possibility of being transformed into flowers, while the righteous are raised to bloom like beautiful plants forever. As the wicked, forever bereft of the Holy Spirit, look upon the camp of the saints, they also note the glorious holy city, the New Jerusalem, which John saw "coming down from God out of heaven." Rev. 21: 2.

The resurrection of the wicked looses Satan out of his prison. He at once begins his furious effort to compass about the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Insane with disappointment, and unable yet, in the face of such infinite glory, to know that he is defeated, he inspires the mighty hosts of the lost with new energy, they knowing that they are in the same condition as he.

As John the revelator looked upon them, their countless legions rolled over the broken and uneven surface of the earth, like an endless procession. Battalion followed upon battalion, and regiment was succeeded by regiment. Their purposes are manifest. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. . . . And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Rev. 20: 7.

When the apostle Paul was on the way to Damascus, at noontide, when the sun was in the meridian and at its maximum strength, suddenly a great light shone round about him. It struck him to the ground. There was violent power in it. When he arose, he was blinded by the light. The glory of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was infinitely stronger than the sun at noonday.

The fire that shall stream from God and destroy the wicked will be the greatest manifestation of terrific light ever shot toward this planet. It will envelop not only the wicked, but the entire earth itself. It is that of which Peter speaks when he says, "The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3: 10.

The earth will be enveloped in a molten sea of flame, like the fire clouds of the sun. The New Jerusalem will ride safely upon the place prepared for it. The saints will be safe within it, as Noah was within the ark. And as the angels of God were present to behold the earth when it was created the first time, so likewise the saints, safely housed in the New Jerusalem, will witness the purification and re-creation of this glorious planet.

The earth, when first created, was inhabited by a race that had never seen heaven. This will not be so in the

re-creation. The close of the millennium will deliver to this planet a population whose home for a thousand years had been in the "many mansions" "in My Father's house."

The mysteries of the past will have been unfolded to them. They will have conquered sin when in the flesh; and certainly, in their glorified bodies, they will be strong to continue in the righteousness they have learned.

"In the ages to come," says the apostle Paul. Yea, in the infinite light of ages to come! As knowledge is progressive, so will love and reverence increase. The Hindu doctrine that ultimately all souls will return to and be lost in God, is as false as sin itself; for though we should live ten thousand times ten thousand years — yes, more, though we should live ten trillion times ten trillion years — God would always be an eternity ahead of us. There would always be something in Him after which we would passionately yearn, and which we could never have without having Him.

God will not be the great uniformity in whom all distinctions vanish. He is infinite, and we are not. Our knowledge shall increase, greatly increase, and with the unfolding years, each new delight will add its contribution to the joy of living.

Original Dominion Restored

As our relation to God is changed, so is our relation to the universe and to the creatures that inherit this planet. Now enmity exists between man and the lower animals — at least with a larger part of them. Then the old dominion will be restored, and "a little child shall lead them." The saints can say to the lion, "Come," and he will come; to the mighty leviathan, "Go," and he will go. Oh, the blessed joys that await the redeemed at the close of the millennium! Then shall it be fully known that it does make a great deal of difference whether or not we serve God in this life.

Our decision to-day has eternal influence upon the actions of the future. Let us make our decision aright; for "how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"

With the publication of this, the concluding article of Dr. Wilkinson's illuminating series on the millennium, it is a pleasure to announce the coming of five strong articles on spiritism, by the same writer, scheduled to begin in our issue of November 14. EDITOR.